If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

The short-short version of history is that MS needed a database platform on OS/2, and Sybase was really the first to have a commercial client-server DBMS so MS chose them and their 'SQL Server' product. After several years of a weird partnership they split and MS took the 'SQL Server' name.

The differences are probably not easily summed up in a single post (or thread!) but both follow the same basic architecture (log and data devices, locking, T-SQL basics, etc.) whereas MS is Windows only but ASE lives on Windows, Linux, Solaris, AIX, etc.